Fractured Debts
by KungFu Jedi
Summary: As a reward for keeping a cool head, the Doctor invites Martha to pick a destination. However, as she begins to deal with post-traumatic stress from their last adventure, their newest one reminds the Doctor why he doesn't let The Companion drive: He might end up on a planet where he owes somebody *else* a debt... Presuming he knows where they are in the first place. Post 'Blink'.
1. Chapter 1

_All right, folks! Here it is! First Multi-Chap story I've written. This is with the Tenth Doctor and Martha, and set sometime after 'Blink' and before 'Utopia' . Enjoy!_

* * *

He really should know better by now. 905 years and all that. Should've taught him something. The TARDIS took him where he needed to be, not always where he wanted to be, or where he thought he should be. It was a fact. A simple fact, and one that he grudgingly admired. Yes, She got him into trouble more often than not, but he always got out of it. After fixing a giant mess. Always a big, bloody mess to clean up.

And on a Thursday, to boot! Thursdays were his Happy day! (Well, technically every day was a happy day, but he had a soft spot for Thursdays. Close enough to the end of the week to guarantee something fun, but not so close that he had to expend a lot of effort to save the Universe. He usually saved that for Saturdays. Or Mondays. Though Mondays tended to leave a huge mess when they left. Saturdays he could count on Fun. Which was the whole objective, after all...)  
He had been so proud of himself too, staying out of trouble for this long. He had actually fooled himself into thinking he could get on and off this ice ball of a planet with nothing more than a waltz around the huge, stony landscape, and frostbite for a souvenir.

He ended up with a bit more than frostbite.

* * *

_7 hours earlier..._

"Oh, come _on_, Doctor!" pleaded Martha, "You promised!" Honestly, he was acting like a 5 year old child.  
Not that that was anything out of the ordinary.  
After that disastrous, and initially terrifying experience with the Weeping Angels, she could do with something a bit less... life-threatening. Maybe another Planet, even! That would be fun. The Weeping Angels weren't exactly her idea of adventurous New Horizons Extraordinaire. Wouldn't mind never seeing those again. _Ever._

She edged toward the TARDIS console, flicking her fingers out toward a dial that looked for all the world, like a sundial. _A sundial?_

Whatever. She teasingly tapped the dial on top, trying to get his attention.

"AhAhAh- Stop that! What are you doing?!"  
"You promised." She furrowed her eyebrows. Added a small pout just for effect. The Doctor looked at her, putting on a very exaggerated, exasperated glare that melted into a cheeky grin.  
"Of course, I did promise you, didn't I?" His eyes grew far away for a brief moment, as they often did- and Martha was used to it by now- but just as quickly danced back to their brilliant audacious gaze. The Doctor swept his hand over the console.

"So," he invited, smile wide and eyebrows high, "where do you want to explore?"

Martha's eyes widened. "Y-you mean- I can pick?" He tipped his head pointedly.  
"But I don't know all the planets! There could be amazing ones out there that you know all about but I'll never know unless YOU take me there," his curious, eager companion emphatically emphasized.  
"Aw, but see, where's the fun for me in that? You could pick someplace I'VE never even been to!" he threw back at her with that slightly wild, glittering look in his dark eyes. Oh, the possibilities... Martha smirked at him, tilting her forehead pointedly, and then huffed.

"Oh, fine. Which button do I push?"  
The Doctor grinned, and pointed to the main lever. "Oh, I'll set the time calibrators; you just tell me when to stop." He moved towards the familiar set of dials farthest from the door, and started turning. Martha smiled eagerly, and after about 14 seconds, she pressed on the handle of the long lever, and with a grinding screech, wrenched it down. A familiar hum began, and Martha nearly giggled with anticipation.  
The Doctor actually did. He always did enjoy tickling the unpredictable. Threatening habit, one might say. Not that the Doctor cared about advice concerning his life. Even if it did originate from his own subconscious.  
The objective was always the same.

Fun.

* * *

The TARDIS suddenly vibrated violently, throwing them to the floor. And then, strangely enough, it felt like they were moving rather quickly.

Very, _very_ quickly. Which was incredibly out of the ordinary.

Normally, you could never tell they were moving at all; Most of the time, all the TARDIS did was seem to shake and shiver, and then _appear_ somewhere. Of course, Martha knew it could move; after all- that's how they got from planet to planet. She just never remember being this physically aware of, well, _actual speed_.

A keen pitch began, and the Doctor struggled to his feet from the violently vibrating floor, exclaiming "No, No, don't you be like that now!" and something muttered in a language that Martha didn't recognize but that quite possibly was a Gallifreyan curse. They were, after all, universal for the most part, no matter what language they were in. The Doctor flipped some switches and grabbed the screener with his free hand (after a couple of flailing grasps!) and his face contorted into something in between a grin, and a grimace.

"Ooooh, Martha Jones!" he yelled above the high pitched whining, "I do believe we're going to crash!"

"WHAT?! We've never crashed!"

"Weelll, that's because normally I'm driving-"

"I thought you WERE DRIVING!"

"I was! AM! But now we need to Hold OOOOONNNNN!"

The last 'On' was drawn out as the TARDIS jerked violently and threw the Doctor 6 feet backwards into the wall, as Martha tumbled forwards, gripping the bottom of a railing and hanging on for dear life. The whining grew louder and louder, until she felt her eardrums would surely rupture! She scrunched down her face into her arms, shutting her eyes tightly.

"**DOCTOR!**" _Are you alright?!_ she wanted to scream. But she had no breath left. The TARDIS heaved and rattled, and right when Martha was pretty sure it would implode-

...There was stillness.

* * *

The TARDIS rumbled; it was almost an animal sound, unfamiliar to Martha's ears. Of course, admittedly, she hadn't been traveling around with the Doctor for that long, but still. It sounded... wrong.

Or was it the TARDIS? Could it have been something outside?

No! There it was again! A distant, deep calling sound, within the TARDIS somewhere.

Distress.

A warning, perhaps?

Somewhere behind her, she heard a faint groan.

"Martha?"

"It's fine. I-I'm alright. You okay?" She took a few deep breaths to slow her racing heart, calming after a few moments. It was amazing how quickly panic fled when you simply stilled and focused.

"Yeah... I think. Nothing broken. I hope," he grunted, holding his head and massaging the back of his scalp, wincing at the bruise that was most definitely as big as a dinner plate. "Ah! We've landed. Whatever happened to cause such a disruption in the time vor-" But his words fell short on his quickly recovering companion.

Quivering with both uncertainty and excitement, Martha jumped up from the floor and cautiously made her way toward the door.

"Ahhhh- Martha Wait. I'm not entirely sure-"

"Oh, come on, Doctor; it has to be something fun if it was this much trouble to get here,"

She cracked a smile at him and wriggled her eyebrows.

Hesitating a split second, she cracked open the door.

She inhaled sharply as a wall of _cold_ pressed into her. It was sharp, and thick, but not so cold for her to be fearful. She smiled softly as a few snowflakes drifted slowly to the ground. She did _so _love snow. They never got much snow in London... it made her feel like a little girl again, gazing up at the big bright moon and wonder what her life was going to bring... She shook herself out of her reminiscing and looked and around at the surrounding landscape.  
Stone mountains, or rock-formations, similar to the stone pillars like in the south-western United States, only dark gray instead of sandy brown. Snow. Snow and stone. And still.

Very still.

The next thing that stuck her was that it was dark, but not night-dark. Or even overcast-dark. More like dim-dark. Like the sky was too big and the sun wasn't big enough for it. Was there a sun? Ah yes! She thought she could make out something sinking behind those huge... bluffs? Canyons? mountains? Pillars? in the distance, but if it was, it was a small sun. Or maybe a bright moon in a dark navy blue-gray sky.

As she looked around more, the smaller she felt.

Big. _It was too... BIG_.

Or maybe she was too small.

Oppressive. That's what it felt like. She had never seen a sky quite like it.  
Martha was awed, but did not think she liked it. At least, definitely not a place she wanted to live.

_Did_ anyone live here?

Well. They would find out.

"Doctor?"

"Yes?"

"I'm going to have to borrow a coat."

The Doctor arched an eyebrow at her. "Oh yeah? Cold eh? How cold?"

"Cold... enough." She grinned at him, "I'm going to need if we're going out. We... we _are_ going out, right?"

"Yeah! Sure. Why not? Not exploring is for the weaker heart," he cracked excitedly as he grabbed an extra coat for her and came to the door, stepping out onto the soft snow.

And stood there, gazing at his surroundings, taking in a million bits of data at once.

Martha loved to see his brain move, to watch him think, it was so fascinating.

She watched him now, trying to see those intricate gears spinning through his eyes, but to her surprise, instead of the unfettered glee of the unexplored, his mouth straightened, and his eyebrows furrowed the more he took in. Yet he still did not speak a word.

Slowly, the Doctor turned around, observing, looking, thinking, seeing, hearing, _feeling_...

Martha frowned slightly. Admittedly, she hadn't been around the Doctor any long period of time (by his standards, at least!) But if there was one thing she knew wholeheartedly by now, it was that The Doctor was _never_ one to let a comment slide, let an opportunity pass without a witty explanation, a humored thought, or even theoretical rambling.  
He didn't like silence. Silence was too big for him. So he filled it with a thousand murmured ideas, with bright descriptions and brilliant observations with childlike glee.

So why was he so silent now?

* * *

Right after they crashed, The Doctor quickly ran a visual diagnostic of the quantum time calibrators and the detection spectrometers, and was slightly surprised to see that the TARDIS didn't appear to detect their current location. Well. Wasn't the first time it had happened. He did tend to end up in tough spots every now and then.

Okay, pretty much every day. Nothing he couldn't take care of. Besides, if the TARDIS didn't know where they were, then he was pretty sure he would know when he stepped out the door. In cases like this, he just preferred to be the first one out the door. He had to keep score, after all. Martha begged, and he let her go, not sensing anything of immediate danger, and she was just peeking out. After that convoluted mayhem of a spin, he wanted to make sure all the instruments were working properly. A few fluxes here and there, but nothing overtly abnormal, which was the opposite of what he was expecting.

Oh well. Make his job easier, if less eventful.

As if.

His life really couldn't be more eventful if he tried.

He heard Martha suck in a breath, and felt a faint whiff of cold air. His senses perked and the hair stood up on his arms as his mind subconsciously strained to detect any familiar elements.

Cold. Nothing else.

The Doctor was not used to unfamiliarity. (Now _there _was a topic for discussion!) It didn't make him _nervous_, per se, but if he didn't know about something, he found out. Period. It just wasn't something that happened often. There were, after all, few places he hadn't been too, especially during his long life, but those that he hadn't seen, he wanted to know all about and explore. He just normally did that when there weren't any companions around. Just in case, you know, things got messy. However, they were in a familiar quadrant, and he highly doubted it was someplace he didn't know.  
Martha mentioned needing a coat, and that was all it took. He grabbed an extra one sitting in one of the side rooms on his way to her, and without further ado, blasted outside to discover this place.

Stopped.

Listened.

Felt.

A million different whispering sensations.

A million of nothing.

Of _silence_.

Soft, light snow fell, giving the already dark environment an eerie feel rather than a peaceful one.

A world silent for a millennia.

Silent, and... angry. Brooding, that's what he would say.

All things were alive in someway. Each object had it's own song. A song that he could hear, feel and respond to. The ground whispered into his feet, it's song flooding into his veins telling him the tale of its spent years, a thousand pitter-patters of the many feet that had once walked upon these stones, the song pounded with his hearts, wove into his blood... the air blew by his ears, a snowflake brushed his cheek...

...and he heard nothing.

A secret world, this. A hidden world.

A world simply waiting for the slightest intrusion to begin to rumble.

Like a beast asleep in fathomless caverns, the only sound it's moaning, powerful heart, slowly, steadily keeping time in the endless years.

Just _waiting._

He was not unfamiliar with the feeling; but the frequency that he felt it.

Few and far between, worlds such as this.

He had felt it, but there had been centuries separating his consciousness from the experiences.

He had kept those memories suppressed for a reason. However, it was not often they had any reason to surface.

The Doctors ears were well-attuned to sounds. Not just sounds, but everything. He heard music everywhere, felt the smallest vibrations in the air, in the ground, could tell his location and time simply by inhaling breath. Felt the flutter of time beneath his fingertips as grass on a child's hand. The universe was his playground, his meadow, his castle. His to watch over and his to protect.  
Silence was too big for him.

A gaping wide reminder of all that he had lost. Of emptiness.

"-Doctor?"

Yet silence was a sound too. And when the words finally came, the whisper was more to his own mind, a question unto himself, more than to Martha.

"I have no memory of this place."

* * *

_Aha! First chapter of my very first multi-chap story! You know... it's weird- I am such a sucker for... well, that would give away the plot, but this is very very different from my usual fandom and interests, but it's the first multi-chap story I've written out all the way. Hehe, but suffice to say, this is going to crossover into another fandom, just so you are adequately warned, but I'm keeping it in the Doctor Who category for now. Just another one of his adventures! ;) _

_For now. _

_Enjoy!_

_~KFJ_


	2. Into The Deep

_Into the Deep_

* * *

The Doctor had given Martha a heavier coat than his own, and blimey, she was still cold! Luckily, there was no wind, just the blasted silence. Really, maybe a breeze would be better. At least then there would be something to hear. She had taken her hair down to protect her neck from the cold a bit, and it was really helping. It wasn't even a violent cold, not the freezing, hit-you-in-the-face-frosbite-your-ears-in-a-minute cold, but more of a deep, gentle cold.

A deadly cold.

One that seeped into your veins and crept up into your mind so that you didn't really know it was there until it was too late.

She wondered how the Doctor was holding up.

"You okay with all this?"

"What? Oh sure! I'm always okay. Just wish there was a bloody _breeze_ or something. Or maybe a bird. Except crows. I don't like crows. Nasty shapeshifters, I tell you. Actually, you were there, I don't have to tell you. Well, at least, some of them are," he trailed off only after 3 sentences, unlike he usually did when going on one of his spiels about aliens-who-are-among-us speeches.

"I meant the cold," she teased gently, nudging him. "Was... was Gallifrey a warm planet, or a cold planet? Or in between?" She liked hearing about his homeplanet. She knew very little of his past, and it made him sad, and angry, some of it, but she loved hearing him talk about it. The more he was able to visit it in his memory, the more peace he would gain, she felt.

As usual, his face shut down for a moment, but at her warm inviting tone, saying _I hear you, I hear your pain, tell me,_ he relaxed after a moment, and chose the faraway pleasant memories he had of his home, quickly skipping past the initial emotions the words evoked.  
"Warm planet, for the most part, though we did have nippy winters quite often. Our seasons were a bit different than yours... It was warm, WARM WARM and then not so warm, but still warm, and then cold like no tomorrow. Not quite as cold as this though. Less..."

_Deathly._

"...dreary."  
Martha nodded, trying to distract them both from the cold. The TARDIS had landed in a pretty flat area, with a deep cliff going off behind it around 20 yards. They had headed towards the direction of the deep sun, towards the pillar/bluff... thingys and had agreed to travel to a higher place where they could see if there was any visible civilization.

"So..." Martha started again, seeking the quick distraction from the frost creeping into her shoulders, "any ideas where we might be"

"At the moment? Ahhh, about 17," replied the Doctor with half the enthusiasm and a slight expression of perplexity.

"_17?_ I thought you said you've been all over the universe."

"Well, all is rather... all-encompassing, wouldn't you say? Universe is a big place. Infinite, in fact. No one could ever see every place that's out there. That's part of the fun!" He reached out a hand to pull Martha up onto the plateau. She gripped it, and he hauled her up, and she and the Doctor surveyed the scene before them.  
It appeared there was civilization.

Or had been.

It was hard to tell from this distance, to be honest. The Doctor, apparently, had better eyesight.

"Oh."

"Oh?"

Tall stone monoliths and carved pillars reached into the dark sky, proud and majestic, even under centuries- perhaps millennia- of wear. They stood as sentinels, or perhaps warnings- the latter was more likely- to any who dared venture into their depths. Deep shadows etched into the recessions, away from the dim, far away light, which glinted off what Martha realized was ice. Soft snow still lightly fell, and the air had grown thinner as they had climbed in elevation. Though the air was thinner, the atmosphere felt... heavier.

"Maybe 6 ideas."

* * *

The Doctor loved new planets. It was his most favorite thing in the universe, bar none. Yes, most definitely. Granted, while it was always exciting, there were always going to be planets he'd probably never visit twice, if he had a choice. Unfortunately for him, the TARDIS didn't always think very highly of his choices. It annoyed him sometimes, but it was a fond annoyance.

He was more annoyed at himself right at the moment, though.

His acute senses had picked up nothing new since arriving, save the gradual temperature change, which, while not reaching lethal levels (yet), caused him to be on edge for Martha. While he didn't always seem to show outward concern for his companions at times, that didn't mean it wasn't the first thing on his mind at any given time. He could withstand the cold for far longer than Martha could, resilient girl that she was, bless her heart. And Martha knew that, and she would keep going, stubborn and persistent to the last, which was why he was worried. She might be hurting more than she let on, and he suspected she did. He was working on being more sensitive to that. Normally, he didn't really have a problem with that (plus women needed no excuse to start complaining about their issues) but Martha was a bit hardier than his previous companions, and the farthest thing from an emotional crisis that he'd seen in a while. Which was real handy when he was trying to think.

He, on the other hand, had far more on his mind now that the broad landscape had opened up before them, and the possibilities swirling around in his head rapidly diminished by over half.  
Yet he was still disturbed that the actual name and memory failed to elude him, if indeed he had been here. He was sure (within a 13.78% margin of error, given the circumstances) that he had never been here before. And yet, parts of it seemed _familiar_ somehow. He just couldn't place when, or in what way, or the circumstances which would have caused him to be here. Even as he scourged his memory for a clue, every breath was costing him time, warning him, whispering to him.  
There was something about this planet, something... dark. Mysterious, but far more than those cliché terms. Heavy, weighty, thick.

Veiled.

That's what it was.

Something, some energy, so specific, and so powerful, but hidden. Like someone had thrown a wet blanket over a fire.

A familiar fire.

Hmm.

He plugged in a few different ideas and glanced at his screwdriver again, trying to make sense of the previous readings.  
Nothing earthshattering, but slightly higher than normal quantities of ionic, subphysical particles of radionic mass.

Again, nothing vastly unusual. Lots of planets had places where such formative radionically sensitive particles were higher; even earth. (And Earth had some whoppers, too- just in very specific spots.) His mind idly documented them, needing something to do while the other half of his brain racked his memory.  
_...Stonehedge and Gaza were first and foremost, followed by places near the poles. 1 in Japan (near Sendai), 1 in Shri Lanka, 2 in Africa (Zambia and Senegal, to be exact), 3 in Russia (Arkhangel'sk, Tobol'sk and Kotel'nyy), 1 in Norway, near Trondheim, 2 in South America (Nazca and Valdivia), 2 in Australia (1 ear Kalgoorlie and 1 in a place that didn't even deserve a name) 4 in New Zealand, (New Zealand was a hot spot for being so small- I always found that interesting), 5 in America (1 in Alaska, North Dakota, Virginia, Oregon, and New Mexico) and one about 117ish miles off the coast of Florida) not to mention all the random spots around the oceans..._

Granted these were all the ones he knew of, but there were only 3 or 4 that held astronomical readings and even those were subject to varying levels depending on the time, cycle, and earth's celestial orbit.

_Zip. Zero. Nada. Nilch. Nothing that could help him._

"Doctor? Is that a... What is that?" Martha pointed off to the north, at a large, very civilization-esque structure that promised answers. He hoped.  
It appeared to be a temple. Or once had been. Something of the sort, anyways. The Doctor idly began using his screwdriver on the stone faces. Martha rolled her eyes, and skipped over to another tall pillar beneath an arc to do her own "sonicing".

* * *

_Whirrr._

"Hey- look at this. I found something."

_Whirrrrr._

"What is it?"

_Whirrrrrrr..._

"I dunno... It looks like... writing of some sort." Martha risked pulling her gloveless hands out of the coats' deep pockets to trace the blocky figures cut into the rock. Other more ornamental designs traced around them elegantly. "Wait a minute here... I think this is- it looks like that old- Oh what's it called- that-that old gaelic or somethin', or... wait no. Not Gaelic. That's Scotland. No, the blocky stuff. Like in those Anglo-Saxon history books. Runes! That's what they are. Or maybe they just look like them. No, These definitely look like the same as the ones in the books. That's weird though, because those are on earth..."

She trailed off as the Doctor came over to take a look. "Well, you know, not everything ON earth comes FROM Earth," he grinned as he studied the runes that she had formally been pointing at, and his smiled faded as he read them. Old. Very old. But he could still read it. He could read every language in the universe. Well, partially because the TARDIS translated, but he could still do chipper on his own 904 years thank you very much.

"Huh."

"What?"

"Maybe 3 ideas."

"Oh, we're down to 3 now, are we? You'd be rubbish at Jeopardy."

"Hey now, I'll have you know that even Ken can't go up against me and ten billion constellations and their species languages," he said pointedly as he threw a grin her way.

Wait a moment... TARDIS. _The TARDIS should've..._

"Martha, can you read these?" he asked, already knowing the answer and getting a cool feeling pooling in his abdomen.

"Why on earth would I be able to read Ancient Runic? You know that's a dead language, right? And I thought you could read every language! Does the TARDIS translating count, or should I count that as cheating?" She ribbed him teasingly, but then caught herself. "But the TARDIS... she's always translated before... I should- why can't I read them?"

"That's just it. For some reason the TARDIS' translation sphere isn't extending. It's being suppressed. But by what? I don't understand it! It doesn't make any sense!" The Doctor ran a hand through his hair frustratingly, making the ends stick up, as he began muttering to himself again and Martha frowned.  
He took the sonic screwdriver and passed it over the runes furiously, trying to derive a clue, a signature, an electro reading, _anything..._  
Martha sighed, and shivered. "I think it's getting colder. Do you think we should head back? I don't want to have to hike back to the TARDIS in a blizzard." She rubbed her arms. "And you still haven't answered my question."

"... couldn't have possibly been more than miniscule subradial emissions. Would it be the type of rock? ... Whirrr... nahhh, just a basic igneous composition that could give off... But that doesn't make sense _either_! Sorry, what?" the Doctor craned his head around to look at her.

"Runic. Can you read it?" his companion asked pointedly.

"Oh. Well of course I can _read_ it, but that's not going to help us get out of here," the Doctor replied absent-mindedly.

_Get out of here?_ "Whatever do you mean by that? We'll just go back the way we came. Nothin' to it. There's nobody here, anyways," shrugged Martha, teeth chattering as she glared at the Doctor, who didn't appear to be cold at all. Time Lords. They were probably part snowman. And part everything else.  
"Well of course we won't go back the way we came. Where's the fun in that?" the Doctor prattled, "we'd just be seeing the same places all over again. It'd be like reliving the same day. Which, by the way, I've done. Bit rubbish that. And boring. Whoever invented boredom anyways? They must've been the most miserable person on earth!" he finished as he continued scanning the runes and the surrounding stone, searching the readings.

"Argh! I don't understand it! Nothing! The sonic should at least be telling me what level of ionization the granite molecule are feeding at, and it's not even getting that much!" Giving up, he ground his forehead in exasperation on the stone in front of him, and let out a deep breath.

Martha looked at him with pity, and wondered if it would do any good to remind him that she could barely feel her toes.

Wait...

There.

There was... _something. _

A quiver. Just quietly thrumming into the recesses of his mind, blending gently in with his beating hearts. Slowly, he tilted his head up against the stone, and just listened.

Moved his ear. Listened again.

Quieter.

Deeper.

Listening.

_Feeling._

* * *

"What_ are_ you doing, Doctor?"

"Shh! I'm listening!"

"For what?"

He didn't answer her, continuing to place his head at different intervals, and stretched his senses as far as they would go.  
There. There was something. Faint. Like a heartbeat. Fluttering, and warm, like a coal that had sat all night and just needed someone to blow on it.  
Ah... he should have known. The runic, the subphysical radionic emissions, the concentration of ionic emissions from the stone, the ancient historical feel... the older peoples of the earth (and many other less advanced societies!) would have called it magic.  
Nothing he hadn't stumbled upon before, obviously, just not in his usual sphere of travel every day. Unfortunately, while the Time Lords had been knowledgeable in this kind of energy transference, they deemed it an unnecessary use of their time, as their were other ways to much more conveniently achieve the same results.

The Doctor, however, being the curious creature that he was, had studied every aspect on energy transference, as he found all forms of it fascinating. (He found most things fascinating, as it were.) Not his preferred method of energy manipulation however. There were... less expending ways to go about it. The only thing with magic is that it fed off a biological life force, in place of artificial energy, so the degree of potential was largely dependent on the individuals capacity to harness it. It could be learned, under certain circumstances, but far more often was inherited.  
Magic was science, after all, just a science that originated from a biological source instead of a mechanical one. He hadn't encountered much magic in his travels. Hmm. He made a mental note to add a subphysical radionic partical emission enhancer to his screwdriver on the biological mechanics settings. If nothing else, it would at least help him detect and manipulate it's source.  
However, he didn't have that setting, at the moment, hence the mental note.

Well. He'd do what he could.

Reaching into his core, he pulled a portion of his vast energy reserves directly from his essence, and mentally directed it through the telepathic synaptic pathways in his mind, before diverting it through it hand and into engraved stone. It poured invisibly into the rock, hungrily following his command and searching every hidden niche of the will that had gone into those engravings in the long centuries and millennia past.

Those in the magical spheres would have termed his action the equivalent of a seeing spell.

The Doctor cringed slightly as he felt the biological energy leaving him as he converted it to telepathically searching a stone for answers. Every single particle he sent was like teleporting his nerves into the netherworld. Everything was heightened and supersensitive within the bioradial electromagnetic wave that some would have termed magic. He could feel each and every one searching, reaching, _feeling_, until...

There. There it was. Magic, like every other energy emission, left a signature. A trace. And he found it. Like frost creeping into his blood...  
He mentally shivered, grabbed it, and immediately let go, tucking it away in his mind to mull over more extensively in a moment. He let himself feel some satisfaction in his accomplishment, something that few Time-Lords had ever studied or deemed important. And now, he had stolen his answer.

Hmph. Stole about 26 years of his life, too.

All for a little knowledge.

Ugh. He hated magic. Magic was for the immortal.  
He was not. 26 years may not have been much to any other long-lived species such as himself, but every year, each month, each week, each and every day, every single minute was special. Important. An adventure that could never be reclaimed. Who knew what he might have done with those years, far away as they were?  
He would never know.

* * *

"AHA!" Martha jumped as the Doctor exclaimed from his odd position by the stone engravings, looking for all the world self-satisfied, triumphant and disappointed. _Odd combination of feelings_, she thought.  
"Well, did you find something? Hope it's worth it... I'm freezing! It's definitely gotten colder. Can we go now? This place is seriously giving me the creepers..." _I'm just glad there's no statues. That would have been the topper on this little ice cake. _

But after his excited one-second exclamation, the Doctor was silent again. "In a moment... In a moment. Let me finish."  
"Finish WHAT?" Martha was irritated now, only exacerbated by her very cold feet and red, shaking fingers. Disguising her worry and fear with irritability was her class act. And now the Doctor was being elusive, _again._

"Decoding the biological energy signatures. I might have something..." He scanned his screwdriver over the different stones and even the floor once more, quickly picking up other traces that he could record and observe later.  
His mind rapidly picked apart the energy codons in his minds, and in a literally freezing split second, he recognized the frequency that had once been familiar, so long ago.  
Very, _very_ long ago.

Oh.

_Oh._

* * *

The cold, the runes, the landscape, the stone, the soft heartbeat of a thousand frozen winters, the frost in his veins, the whispers of a doomed land, the suppressed energy, the indomitable waking _power..._

"Martha, we need t-"  
He was cut off as Martha gave a start and then froze as a deep rumbling moan echoed beneath them, and around them, low and bass, echoing through the clouds, and the canyons, and reverberating through the stones into their feet, into their very _blood..._  
Martha now felt a very different cold sink into her. "Doctor? Tell me that was an earthquake."

The Doctor was silent for moment, the fading extensions of his mind picking up on the story that rumble told.  
Oh, of COURSE. How could he have been so _STUPID? Doctor, Doctor, Did you ever stop to THINK Doctor? Was it really all about Fun? Open a door in one direction and it can be opened in another. Stupid, stupid, STUPID..._  
He met his loyal companions wide, unnaturally fearful chocolate eyes, looking to him for reassurance, for instruction.

He hated seeing fear.  
"Doctor...?"  
The rumble quieted after a few moments, but after a very brief respite, a very different reverberation sounded into their ears and hearts.  
That of pounding steps.

"Time to go."

That was all it took, a reaching hand and an inhaled breath, as the Doctor and Martha began to _run._

* * *

Running was usually fun, thought Martha. This time it seemed different. Even the Doctor.

This was not fun. This was threatening. This was for their existence. And she couldn't help but feel that they were not supposed to even be here. It was wrong. All of it was _wrong_.

The Doctor stretched his long legs as far as he dared, pulling Martha behind him.  
Why, why, _why_ did they have to come _here?_  
All of the places the TARDIS could have landed them in the universe, in this damn cluster even, they had landed on one of the top ten on his very specific, very painstakingly (and painfully!) created, 'Do Not Disturb' list.

Traveling was supposed to be fun. And it was his responsibility to keep his companion safe. Would he ever learn that lesson?  
It seemed he had not, even after 844 years.

Because he definitely would have described his last little... _excursion_ to Jotunheim as anything _but_ fun.

* * *

_Annnnnnnnd... Chapter 2! DUN DUN DUN DUN! Hehehehe... Now, ladies and gentlefolk..._

_NOW it is a crossover._

_Will be placed in full Crossover category in the next chapter, because the Doctor can pretty much go anyplace in the universe and it's NOT a crossover unless you see specific people. Right? _

_Right._

_The Doctor can pretty much cross into any fandom he likes and get away with it. They'd probably even let him get away with it in the show. _

_Ahem. _

_On with the tour... _

_Coming next... The Doctor meets the reason for his lax visits to Jotunheim as of late, and unfortunately, also left some unfinished business apparantly. Let's just hope poor Martha doesn't turn into FrostyJones2.0™._

_~KFJ :)_


End file.
